Student Opportunities

Summer Programs Abroad

The purpose of the summer travel programs at the School of Architecture and Design is to develop design studio work combined with a critical understanding of architectural history, case studies, and comparative analysis through a direct and fully immersive examination of the overall complexity of the places visited and their built forms. It is a way to learn principles of urbanism and architecture by visiting and studying significant urban environments and their canonical examples of architecture from early history to the present. By examining and comparing the cities and their work, the intention is to develop a means to evaluate both those works and to become more critical of one’s own design.

Throughout the program, students and faculty meet with practicing architects, students and professors of architecture, and urban planners of several academic and professional environments across the countries and cities visited. Students are then exposed to different cultures and ways of operating but also pushed to think past their limits and open their minds to new discoveries about themselves.

Design Workshops and International Exchanges

Workshops and international exchanges reflect the School of Architecture and Design’s core belief in “learning by making” and the importance of the “cross-fertilization processes among communities and academic environments”. These experiences allow students to grow and learn, and to understand needs and approaches in several diverse contexts, through collaboration with local governments, communities, experts, civil servants, and schools on projects that often have a proactive social and environmental value, while intervening in sensitive areas of the world.

Students are called upon to open their minds, expand their horizons, and share and improve their skills by establishing immersive interactions that offer a direct understanding of the identity and background of users, and the different methodologies, tools, and design and construction processes deployed.